CALEA feature page

The Federal Communications Commission has recently stated that it plans to expand the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to the Internet in the form of regulation of VoIP (Internet telephone service). This expansion is of significant civil liberties concern because it would require VoIP providers to build all their products with surveillance backdoors that can be accessed by law enforcement and will likely be misused by hackers and criminals. It will likely also result in an expansion of the definition of call identifying information and Internet surveillance by law enforcement and private 3rd parties. The FCC decision substantially misreads the text of CALEA and opens the door for similar surveillance technologies to be installed in future communications technologies that utilize the Internet.

The American Civil Liberties Union opposes the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking applying the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to broadband Internet service and Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP) because it raises significant constitutional, statutory and practical problems and offers no demonstrated security benefit.